Thorpe protest: Ballsy or an embarrassment?

November 6, 2024

IBN EDITORIAL

Was Lidia Thorpe right to confront King Charles in the way she did in Canberra yesterday?

Public opinion is split with many calling her actions ‘ballsy’, while others called it an embarrassment.

Of course Senator Thorpe has a track record of confrontation – and again, many will agree she is right to do so, while others look for a more reconciliatory approach to solving the many issues and barriers First Nations people struggle with.

The first Aboriginal woman in the Australian Parliament Nova Peris said on her Twitter X account that Senator Thorpe’s “outburst does not reflect all of Aboriginal Australia.”

“As a former Senator and the first Aboriginal woman in the Australian Parliament, I am deeply disappointed by the actions of Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe during King Charles III’s visit to Parliament House,” she wrote.

“Her outburst, which disrupted what should have been a respectful event, was both embarrassing and disrespectful to our nation and the Royal Family.”

Ms Peris also highlighted the fact that Senator Thorpe affirmed allegiance to the Crown when she was sworn in as a member of the Senate in 2022.

A republican, Ms Peris, also called for a better pathway for reconciliation, stating she believed the majority of Indigenous Australians did not believe in such a confrontational way.

Professor Tom Calma, a Kungarakan elder and member of the Iwaidja people, was present in Canberra.

Professor Calma, who is the co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, said it was not King Charles’s role to negotiate a treaty with First Nations Australians.

Constitutionally he is correct. That role lies with the Federal and State governments.

Senator Thorpe, as an elected politician, should know that.

Even Linda Burney, until very recently the Federal minister for Aboriginal affairs, said an element of respect was required “even if you don’t agree with the monarchy.”

“I don’t think Lidia did herself any favours or acted respectfully,” she told the ABC.

And she went on: “There is freedom of speech, but I guess for me it’s the way in which you exercise that freedom to be most effective. I’m not making a judgement either way.”

Fair go that she, Senator Thorpe, is a modern day warrior battling for equality and demanding a treaty and truth telling, but politics is a long game and her polarising methods, as one parliamentarian put it, will not help the cause.

She will sit in the Senate for another three years and will not stand for election again. But over the course of those three years, will she actually achieve anything for First Nations people?

Protest against injustice for sure – and there’s plenty of injustice to protest about – but screaming “F*** the colony’ will only create more divisive attitudes when so many Indigenous leaders are working within the legal framework to improve everyone’s lot.

Maybe it was out of frustration that Senator Thorpe thought her way was the ‘only’ way. There are plenty who think that.

The tortuously slow progress to equality on so many fronts leaves us all calling for positive action.

And with so much inequality in our nation’s history everyone has a right to voice that opinion.

She, and other Indigenous leaders had written to the King requesting meetings – with little positive response – attempting to break through the many layers of bureaucracy that surround and control the British royal family.

So a protest, that she knew – or at least hoped – would garner world press attention, was her only option.

It worked, but will it now see any immediate positive action to close the gap? Very doubtful.

What happened in the past was truly horrendous and should never be forgotten – but surely we must now all walk together on the path of reconciliation to build a better Australia.

 

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